Meadow Arts and Artist Cordelia Cembrowicz have been working closely with the Golden Valley community creating a series of photographic portraits featuring the people who make the community unique. The portrait will become part of a larger public artwork celebrating life in the Golden Valley. Find out more about Cordelia’s time in the Golden Valley in this blog post written by the artist.

During the last week of October, I came to the Golden Valley for a short residency for research, and to start to create a public artwork I have been commissioned to make for the area.  My brief is to visually explore what community means in this particularly rural setting of South West Herefordshire. 

The Golden Valley, situated between the city of Hereford, and the famous ‘book town’ of Hay-on-Wye, has a population of under 15,000 people according to the last census. This is in stark contrast to my local area in North West London, a densely populated urban setting between the Paddington mainline railway, the Grand Union canal and a Sainsbury’s superstore.

Through the support of Meadow Arts, it was possible to bring my young family as part of the residency too, for a true lived experience of the countryside.  “Is that a real sheep, mummy?” said my daughter, the last time we travelled on a train. “Bring welly boots for everyone, warm coats, plenty of food and download the stagecoach app for the bus”, they said. There are no traffic lights in the Golden Valley but plenty of real livestock, pigs, ponies, cattle, ducks, turkeys and hens. We drove from London to stay on a farm.

The Golden Valley consists of a collection of small villages spread over 167 square miles. I had lots of questions rolling around my head. What does it mean to be somewhere so isolated? If you have had a stroke or a C-section, or you can not drive for any other reason, how do you cope? How do you acknowledge your relationship to others? How are you linked together? Who is in this community and what does it mean? 

My objective was to talk to and photograph engaged members of the community over three locations, in order to use these photographs to create artwork that links these individuals together to create a giant portrait of the network. 

For the sessions, I was joined by a photography assistant Tom Pinnegar, introduced by Hereford College of Arts, whose photography department also graciously loaned much of the kit, Learning and Engagement Manager Emma Bowen, and freelance producer Suzie Jones.

On Monday 28th October, our first location was Kingstone Surgery, the GP practice serving 5,000 people in the local area. We were welcomed into one of the consultation rooms, and immediately unfurled all the kit, sweeping away any medical leaflets and equipment and centring the photographic backdrop and lights. People came, and brought some special objects – a fiddle, a spindle and some local wool, a racket, a textile collage artwork, a hand glider aeroplane. A nurse and two doctors joined us in their scrubs, alongside other health centre staff and patients too. 

On Tuesday, we were welcomed into the one stop shop / post office / cafe / gym in the village of Pontrilas, to the south of the Valley. The space in the gym was ideal for our large backdrop and the light was excellent for our purposes. People who have interesting connections to the area. One couple had been in the village for 63 years, another had been there a matter of months, but were already made to feel so welcome and part of the community. “I know there’s a football team but I can’t find them” said one 12 year old boy who has recently relocated from London, it’s hard to play football by yourself. A vegetarian pig farmer and a family of deer stalkers joined in, challenging my perception of the meat industry. Sonya, the cafe owner, welcomes the dementia cafe every Tuesday with a three course meal and bingo session. The cafe is at the centre of her life, even her dog Gloria was named by a cafe member. 

On Wednesday, we moved up the valley and joined The Hub at St Peter’s Church, Peterchurch. The church is still a functioning place of worship, but was redesigned in 2010 to encompass more community activities, including a library, commercial grade kitchen and cafe. A Yew tree stands in the cemetery that is over 2,000 years old, one of only 12 noted in the country. We ended with a flourish, the vicar came, the cafe chef team, and even a gentleman celebrating his 100th birthday in the cafe joined in. We photographed the Dore Community Transport driver, a linchpin of community life for so many elderly and isolated residents who can’t travel otherwise. We photographed a 3rd generation farmer who was christened at the church over 80 years ago, and her 4th generation Peterchurch resident son.

I have some excellent raw material to work with, lots of stories, and can now begin the post production task of organising my photographs. I will digitally collage the figures into a structure that reflects the sense of community within these individuals. I hope I can honour the kindness and good nature of the people I encountered and make something that will be enjoyed.  Watch this space… 

Our Place Golden Valley is a Meadow Arts project. It is part of the Our Place Herefordshire programme funded by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, with match funding from Herefordshire Council under the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and public health funding.

For more information on Our Place and the other projects in Leominster and South Wye, please visit www.the-shire.co.uk/our-place.